Generally, in a mobile communication system supporting a broadcast-multicast (BCMC) service, multimedia data such as video and audio should be transmitted. Thus, a BCMC mobile communication system requires a high data rate. In order to perform a BCMC service, a high data rate should be supported by a packet data channel of a physical layer. BCMC data in a current mobile communication system is transmitted via packet data channels of a physical layer presently existing.
If contents to be broadcast are generated from a base station or delivered to the base station from another location, the base station transmits the contents through a radio section using a protocol previously agreed upon between the base station and a mobile subscriber station to enable a plurality of users within the corresponding base station to view or listen to the contents.
A message transmitted between a base station and mobile subscriber stations to perform a BCMC service corresponds to a broadcast overhead message, a broadcast registration message or a broadcast reject message, for example.
The broadcast overhead message is a message that is commonly transmitted to mobile subscriber stations from a base station. The broadcast overhead message contains information enabling a corresponding mobile subscriber station to stably receive a packet data channel or a broadcast channel and perform decoding. For instance, information transmitted via the broadcast overhead message includes information for contents of a BCMC service, information for a channel used for BCMC, mobile subscriber station registration information and the like. The various information are periodically transmitted via the broadcast overhead message. Accordingly, the mobile subscriber station receiving the BCMC service receives the broadcast overhead message.
The broadcast registration message is a message transmitted from a mobile subscriber station to a base station. The broadcast registration message carries information regarding a BCMC service flow to be received by the mobile subscriber station from the base station.
The broadcast reject message is a message transmitted to a mobile subscriber station from a base station in response to the broadcast registration message. The broadcast reject message contains information regarding a rejected BCMC service flow among a plurality of BCMC service flows requested by the mobile subscriber station via the broadcast registration message. Additionally, information indicating that all BCMC service flows requested by the mobile subscriber station are allowed can be transmitted through a specific field value of the broadcast reject message.
Each of the broadcast overhead message, the broadcast registration message and the broadcast reject message includes a FlowDiscriminationCount field. One BCMC service flow has at least one BCMC configuration component flow. Accordingly, the FlowDiscriminationCount field contains information regarding a count of the BCMC configuration component flows configuring one BCMC service.
As mentioned in the foregoing description, the broadcast reject message contains information related to a rejected BCMC service flow among BCMC service flows requested by the mobile subscriber station via the broadcast registration message. However, in the related art, a more efficient BCMC service flow rejecting method for the BCMC service rejection has not been proposed.